award winning journalists new york times bestsellers no topic out of bounds no opinions left

unsaid an institution for sports talk and information this is the sports reporters here's mike

lupica mitch album and bob ryan i am bob ryan of the boston globe and espn i'm mitch album of the

detroit free press i am mike lupeka m lb dot com and the new york daily news welcome Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe and ESPN. I'm Mitch Album of the Detroit Free Press.

I am Mike Lupica at MLB.com in the New York Daily News.

Welcome to the Thursday pre-Super Bowl edition of the Sports Reporters podcast.

And guys, this is a unique event in not just American sports, but in America,

because the entire country, around 6.30 Eastern time, will go to a

football game on Sunday night. It is like a football holiday, except it occurs on a Sunday every

year. This year, it is the Bengals playing the Rams in their home stadium. There's a, there's a heat wave

in Los Angeles, so it's going to feel a little

bit like a preseason game. And and guys, when I look at this game, listen, if I were betting my

own money, I'd be betting it on the Rams. Okay. But the one player on the field who makes this

more most interesting to me, even more interesting than the career arc of Matthew Stafford is the kid playing quarterback for the Cincinnati Bengals.

Mike, even the, it was inevitable that the New York Post order daily news, one of them would get to Broadway Joe and and he gives his thumbs up his imprimatur to

joe cool and uh so there we go oh yeah bobby i've been calling him joe namath burrow for a couple of weeks

so we have it on record now joe namet says the kids okay if they win everybody you'd be

be calling them that because it and you know we're still in the midst of it,

but if they win and you step back and you look at the Cincinnati Bengals coming from

where they were a couple of years ago. And Joe Burrow, who didn't even really, his first year

was so cut short because of that injury that you could argue that he's sort of a half

rookie doing this and and guiding the team and he is don't make any mistake I mean he's he's

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